– Hey everyone, my name is Eric Harris and I’m excited to welcome you to my course on aerial photography. Now aerial photography’s been around for a long time but only recently has it become an affordable option for the average consumer. Remote controlled quadcopters have been making major waves lately and they’re an amazing tool to have as a photographer. So in this course I’m going to cover pre-flight preparations and I’m going to walk you through some of the settings in the DJI Vision app. I’ll give you some flight advice and provide tips and tricks on getting the best aerial images that you can. I’m also going to dive into post-production workflowsemphasizing exposure, color, lens distortion.

And I’ll also show you how to stitch together an aerial panorama. But before I jump into it I want to address safety. If you fly a quadcopter chances are you’re eventually gonna crash it and that’s why it’s incredibly important that you’re smart about where you fly. You should never fly over people, ever. Accidents happen and if you’re not careful it’s really easy for someone to get hurt. You should never fly near an airport, a military base or a national park. These are all no fly zones and if you don’t respect them you can get in some serious legal trouble. The newer copters actually won’t even take off in most of these no fly zones but you should actively avoid them either way.

The skies are fairly unrestricted otherwise but always use common sense when you’re choosing where to fly. And remember that different countries have different restrictions so when in doubt it’s always a good idea to check with local law enforcement. With safety out of the way, let’s get started by checking out some of the necessary gear.